Pompeii : its life and art / tr. into English by Francis W. Kelsey ... with numerous illustrations from original drawings and photographs.

August Mau

Date:: 1902

Credit: Pompeii : its life and art / tr. into English by Francis W. Kelsey ... with numerous illustrations from original drawings and photographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

581/644 (page 505)

$INSCRIPTIONS UPON AMPPIORAP: 5«5 f^isse ab L. Caecilio lucundo HS oo DCLXXV ct accept ante hane diem VIII idiis Iimias HS a> nnmmos ob veetigal publieum pasquornm. Aet. Pom. C. Fotiteio C. Vips. eos. The language of the memorandum is so nearly identical with that of the receipt that it is unnecessary to add a translation. A considerable number of the amphorae found at Pompeii bear inscriptions, generally written with a pen in black ink, but sometimes painted with a brush in red or white. Most of them contained wine. The percentage of Greek inscriptions is large, an evidence of the strength of the Greek population in the region about the city. The wine underwent fermentation in large round vats of baked clay, dolia, which stood in the wine cellar of the villa, eella vinaria, or in a court (p. 364); from these the amphorae were filled. The vats containing the common wines were ordi- narily emptied before the next vintage, when they were needed for the new wine, but the better sorts were allowed to remain in the dolia for a longer time. The wine of one Pompeian am- phora was left in the vat till after the harvest of the second year: C. Pomponio C. Ante to cos., ex fiind\o~\ Badiatto, diff [tisnnt] id. Ang., bimnm, — ‘Consulship of Gains Pomponius and Gains Anicius. From the Radian estate. Poured (into amphorae) August 13. Two years old.’ In what year Pomponius and Anicius were consuls we do not know. The earliest amphora of which the date is certain was filled in 25 A.D. : [^Cosso Le}i\tulo M. Asinio eos. fundi The place from which it came, however, is not so easily determined, since ftntd. may refer to the town of Fundi, or stand for ftittdtts, ‘estate,’ the name that followed having been obliterated. The names of two such estates were lately recovered from amphorae in the house of the ftntdtts Satriaitiis and fundus Asiniantts. In addition to the product of Italian vineyards the Pompeians used also imported wines from the coast of Asia Minor and the islands near by. One dealer, M. Fabius Euporus, kept wine from Cnidus, Cnidtum. Wine from the island of Cos is fre-$